nikhilkhullar wrote:
Arigatou for the information... But, does it mean that yuku is good only for literary purposes and hence, normally reading will always be ikimasu in contemporary or modern day Japanese ..?

Replace "always" with "usually".

In fact you hear yuku and its derivations a lot. On the Yamanote line in Tokyo the standard platform announcement is: "...XXX方面ゆき電車がまいります" (if I remember correctly). I think I'd probably say ゆき in such contexts rather than いき - it feels more natural.

In Japan, we study the pronunciation of 行きます is "Ikimasu"
at school. But we usually pronounce it "Yukimasu". I'm sure no
Japanese care of the differences of Ikimasu and Yukimasu in
this case.
But when we write it using Hiragana letters, "Yukimasu" will
be better. Because 「いきます」"Ikimasu" could be 「行きます」
or 「生きます」 . 「ゆきます」 could be only 「行きます」, basically.
That's clear.
Especially, in a kind of title, we use 「ゆきます」 and this word
has a sort of sound that make us imagine a beautiful and kind
lady^^; 「いきます」 is manly or makes us feel strong will power.
But don't care. The differences are subtle. Both OK is the correct
answer.

It's also used in media (anime, video games...) in stereotypical elderly speech, and can be used even for non-literal meanings of いく. For instance, you might hear 食べねばゆけん instead of the normal 食べなければいけない ("you must not eat it").

Ongakuka wrote:Also has a somewhat poetic nuance, so you'll hear it in songs from time to time (and poems)

When I was trying to learn vocabs through J-pop, "yukimasu" kind of threw me off When I looked it up in a dictionary and saw what it meant, I immediately asked my sensei why he didn't teach that in class. Then he explained about its poetic use and archaic reading. The beauty of Nihongo